


Unexpected Meetings

by orphan_account



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-05 08:28:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14040237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Liara T'soni never had a normal life, not when her mother was one of the most important asari out there.  She still could never have guessed just how dangerous and weird it would turn out to be. Though she did wish she had learned that the usual way instead of people using time travel to try and kill her and the random kid who would one day save everyone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I love time travel dudes, like so so much. I'm taking a break from my other fic so I decided to try out Mass Effect, this is the first time I have written for it! Let me know what you guys think!!

If you asked Liara T'soni about the first time she met Jane Shepard, she would tell you about Therum.

She had been younger then, so shy and awkward. She remembered being so amazed that somehow someone had come to save her from the geth and that it was a human no less. Liara had seen some fantastic things in her lifetime but watching Commander Shepard take down a Krogan Warlord and set off a volcano had been some else. How could she forget a first time meeting like that? After all how many people could say that they met their lover because they had saved them Geth or that it happened right before a volcano erupted?  
Liara would tell you about Therum.

She would be mistaken.

That wasn’t her fault really, surely if she had met Shepard before she would remember, how could someone forget meeting someone like her? Shepard was not someone to be easily forgotten for better or worse after all. She could be forgiven though, and it wasn’t like Shepard remembered this true first meeting ether, for honestly, she didn’t meet Commander Shepard the First Human Spectre until that day on Therum. But she had met Jane Shepard in passing about 25 years earlier.

The year had been 2159 on the Citadel. She had been about 82 years old, in human terms she was a teenager, old enough that she wanted freedom but still too young to be on her own, no matter what her wishes. She hadn’t wanted to visit the Citadel, but her mother had asked her to join her trip. So before she met Shepard, she had been brooding on a bench outside the Council Tower. Her mother had promised that she wouldn’t be long in her meetings and that the two of them, and only the two of them, could then eat lunch together. Instead, she was playing games on her omnitool after waiting for over an hour for her mother to finish her meeting.

As she sighed in boredom, a pair of humans walked close to her bench. Liara hadn’t had any dealings with humans before and had only seen a few of them from afar while on the Citadel. If their facial exceptions were similar to Asari than he was baffled.

“Papa, are we lost?” The child tugged the male’s hand, “We should call Mama, she knows where to go.”  
“Not now Jane,” he stared into his ominitool and muttered to himself, “I swear it said I needed to make a right turn here….”

The child sighed and let go of his hand, after looking around for a moment they apparently decided that to sit next to Liara. They swung their legs and turned to face her, “My papa is lost, we’re are trying to go the markets to see my mama.”  
Liara didn’t know how mature the child was but decided that it couldn’t hurt to help, “You are on the wrong side of the presidium completely, you must go over there.” She pointed to the bridge, “Then go down the stairs.”

The child nodded very gravely, “Thanks.” They jumped off the bench and held out their hand, “I’m Jane.”

Her mother had made sure she knew how to greet all species appropriately, even humans. She returned the handshake and after a moment of hesitation her name, “ I am Liara.”

Jane smiled, “I have to see my mama, I should go.” She waved at Liara as she walked over to her father. Liara waved back and watched as Jane took her father's hand and started to pull him over to the bridge.

And that was her first meeting with Shepard.

Much less exciting than Therum but it was still technically their first meeting. Really Liara couldn’t blame for forgetting such a small and unimportant interaction.  
If her life were like other people’s experiences this moment would have never mattered. Her first successful human interaction, it was small, but it counted! It was forgotten soon afterward when her mother finished her meeting almost two hours late and then postponed their lunch. While this wasn’t the last time the two talked it, was one of last. Soon all Liara remembered of that day was the building anger and hurt that she wasn’t as important as her mother’s work. She had gone home after that trip and studied as hard as possible so she could leave home.

For why Shepard had forgot…. well she had been 5. She had told her mother that she had asked for directions later that day but had forgotten Liara by the end of the week.

But Liara’s life wasn’t quite like others and as Shepard’s friends knew where ever Shepard went weird shit followed. So, of course, this small moment was going to be used to try and kill them both.

That someone would try and kill them with time travel was involved was to be expected at some point in all honesty.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, this fic is way more liked than I thought it was going to be!!! Thanks so much guys!!

Liara was brooding.

She knew it was ‘unbecoming,’ but she couldn’t help it. Her mother had asked her along on this trip even bribed her with promises of coveted time alone. Yet here she was, sitting alone on a bench in near the Presidium. She shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up in truth, her mother hadn’t kept a promise to her in decades.

Liara had hadn’t been close to her mother for some years now, she was all too aware that Matriarch Benezia would instead her daughter follow in her footsteps. She couldn’t bring herself to step that far in the public eye, however. (That she would go on to marry the Milkyway's most famous woman was a massive irony that she did not enjoy.) So she had stayed in her room during all her mother’s gathering.  

She probably wouldn’t be so annoyed if she had her books or videos, but her omnitool had to reboot, so all she had on it at the moment were the necessary things that came preloaded onto it. Liara had become bored with the games, what was the point when you apparently had to pay to win?, she had tried to read some of the books, but well there was a reason they were free.

Liara had taken a bench near the entrance to the wards as looking at the offices where her mother was making her even more upset. She had decided to take up people watching as while individual people tended to intimidate her people as large groups were interesting.  Time passed by in a crawl as Liara watched people mill around the Presidium. She spent ten minutes alone watching a Batarian C-Sec officer pace the sidewalk as she had been quite surprised seeing them, as they were the first one of their kind she had seen in C-Sec. He was quite dull however so instead Liara made sure to watch the few humans that she noticed the most, there were few as their Government had only started to let them board about a year ago. As humans were the first new species discovered so far in Liara’s life they were fascinating to her.

Still, as the time passed the hurt was starting to get the best of her. Finally after an hour after their lunch was supposed to start Liara huffed and began to think about how she was going to leave as she didn’t have enough credits for a cab. A couple flashes of red caught her eye,  it wasn’t common on Presidium by no means. It belonged to a pair of humans, an adult male and his young by their shared looks. Their…. hair? Was what it was called? Had caught her eye as it was a deep reddish color.

The male was frowning, if that meant the same as an asari frown, she had no idea, at his ominitool. The child tugged at their father’s hand, “Papa, are we lost? We should call Mama, she knows where to go.”

So the pair were lost. She thought about trying to help them but she didn’t know if her help would be welcome, she had heard that humans were a stubborn people after all. The child, wait what did humans call they're young again? Sons? Liara wasn’t too sure what gender they were either. They kept tugging at their father’s hand after he didn’t respond.

“Not now Jane,” he stared into his ominitool and muttered to himself, “I swear it said I needed to make a right turn here….”

‘Jane’ huffed and let go of his hand. She started to look around when she and Liara locked eyes Jane’s father didn’t look up from his ominitool as she walked over to her. The child jumped onto the bench and wiggled herself back so that her back was against the back of the seat, leaving her feet to hang off the edge.

Up close Liara noticed that the young human had markings covering her face, similar to the facial markings that some asari have. Though she doubted that Jane had them tattooed on. Liara wasn't too sure about what to do, would it be rude to ignore her? Or rude to talk to her? Asari considered it offensive to speak with some else's young daughter if you hadn’t been introduced, was it similar with humans?  

(Liara had read up a little on humans at this point but not much as there wasn’t much on humans out at this time, the Relay 314 Incident only two years over. She had always meant too but had thrown herself into her studies and never got around to it. Later she would regret that as it would have saved her some very embarrassing moments in her relationship with Shepard. Thank the goddess that Shepard never told anyone why she laughs every time she sees a chicken. )

Jane looked over at her and said in the most severe voice possible, “My papa is lost, we’re are trying to go the markets to see my mama.”

She blinked, surprised that the child had spoken to her, “ Oh! Well, you are-”

Liara had too busy playing attention to Jane to realize that the Batarian C-Sec officer that she had been watching earlier had been walking toward them as soon as Jane and her father had stopped in front of her. As she glanced over she saw that he was only a couple of meters away walking straight toward them, his face twisted in anger and all four eyes set in a glare. For a moment she froze, wondering what in the world she had done to make him so upset. Then she saw that he was holding his pistol in his hand and before she knew what was happening he started to point it at Jane.

She reacted without thought.

* * *

 

Some people would say that Liara became a whole different person after Shepard had been killed by the Collectors. They would mostly be right, she would become a cold almost ruthless person, but they would be wrong to say that the Shadow Broker hadn’t always lived inside Liara T’Soni.

At the start, Shepard had been surprised that an archaeologist could hold her own in a fight, but Liara was the daughter of two of the most power asari alive and that much biotic power had to be controlled with training. She had been trained for years and while she was no commando she had been good enough to defend herself from slavers and pirates that would threaten her.  At the end of the day, she may have killed more mercs and pirates then Shepard.

And when faced with her own mother turning against her and everything she stood for she had gone up against her to fight her to the death. The fact that Benezia would turn out to be indoctrinated hadn’t been known when she had joined the Normandy, and even then she had followed it through to the end.  

Liara had a killer's instinct and wasn’t afraid to use it, no matter how old she was. While she hadn’t gotten a real chance to see that part of herself yet, it was there. So it was a huge mistake that the man they sent to do the most critical part of their plan hated Shepard so very much as it made him overlook Liara completely to kill Jane first.

Because really? He probably should have gone for her first. 

* * *

  

The Batarian was thrown against the wall before anyone knew what was happening. His head had jerked back quickly, she heard the snap, and then he made no sound as he slumped down to the floor. A line of blood trailed down the wall from where his head had hit it.The crowd around them started shouting and calling for a medic. Jane, being five, burst into tears. 

“Jane!” Jane’s father rushed over to her, “Jane are you alright?” He pulled her into a hug before she could answer. He picked her up off the bench and turned to Liara, backing away. “Get the hell away from my daughter!”

“Wa-Wait!” Liara stuttered, “I was only-”  

Her body was still alight with biotics as she had been taught to form a barrier without conscious thought when entering a fight, this saved her life when someone shot at her. The crowd around them started panicking, quickly turning into a mob. 

From across the lake, a squad of C-Sec officers started t rush at them and her heart began to drop on realizing that one of them was the one that had tried to shoot her. She formed a more substantial barrier around them all and felt a profound horror when they started to actually shoot at not only her but Jane and her father as well.

There was no way that C-Sec would fire on a child in the middle of the day. Whoever these people were they were not C-Sec. 

Jane’s father had frozen entirely, he was most likely in shock. She grabbed his arm with her free hand and started pulled them both along in a run, “We have to leave!” Liara shouted. “Quick those stairs lead to the lower wards, we can try to lose them there!” She turned and sent a powerful shockwave toward the group, knocking most of them over. 

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” He said as he pulled to a stop. Thankfully they were out of eyesight for a moment. He shook his head and glared at her as he clinched Jane to his chest. “You just killed that officer, and I want nothing to do with this! ”

“Well me neither! All I know is that he pointed a gun at your child, I reacted, and now they are trying to kill us both!”

“What? I- No!” He shook his head, “Why would someone want to kill Jane?” The child in question was quiet, face buried in her father’s chest and it broke Liara’s heart to hear the small sobs coming from her even muffled as they were.  

“I don’t know but does the reason why matter right now?” Liara started down the stairs at a quick pace, and the pair of human’s begun to follow her close behind. They jogged down the stair quickly as possible. 

“My name’s John.” He stated suddenly, “I thought you should know that since we are running from the cops together.” John looked at his daughter who was still sobbing into his shirt, “Thank you, for saving Jane.”

“ Oh-No,” Liara felt herself blush, “Please don’t think me….”

“You saved my daughter, I owe you a hell of a lot more than a thank you.”

“Then I’m glad I could help…”

“I’m worried for my wife, we were supposed to meet her at the markets. What if these people tried to kill her too?”

“You can’t focus on that right now. Just focus on the present .” Liara took a deep breath, “Goddess I sound like my mother.”

Her mother? Goddess, her mother! What would she think of this? Would she be disappointed that Liara had somehow got caught up in all of this? Was her mother safe or did they try and kill her too? She pushed that far back into her mind, there was no way her mother would fall so quickly. Her mother had more bodyguards than some world leaders.

They came to the door for the lower wards. She pushed open the door just a creak and after no C-Sec officer jumped out opened it. Liara walked ahead, John and Jane close behind her. They walked along the ward for a while in silence and tried to lose themselves in the crowd. When Liara thought that they were safe for a moment, they stopped in a closed off corner and lit up her omni-tool. “I was thinking, and hopefully my mother will be able to figure out what is happening and then put a stop to all this.”

“Your mother?”John sat down on some crates, she knew his arms had to be getting tired, “What can you mother do?”

“My mother is Matriarch Benezia, she is a powerful Asari diplomat....” Liara’s line of thought trail off,  she frowned it was taking longer than usual for her call to connect.

“The person you are trying to call is unavailable. If you would like to leave a-“

Her heart dropped.Goddess, please no. Her mother had always answered her calls no matter what meeting she was in….For her to not answer was a very very bad sign. Her breath caught in her throat and her falt everything that had just happened in the past hour hit her at once. Someone had tried to kill a child in front of her, she shot him, and now an unknown group was trying to kill her. She had actually killed someone today and now her mother isn't answering her omnitool, goddess her mother could be dead!

Her omnitool beeped twice. She wiped her eyes glad that John hadn’t noised as he was to busy confuting Jane. There was a notation saying that a large sum of credits had just been transferred to her omnitool, a considerable sum. The other was a short message from an unknown number -

I am unable to speak now but take these credits and hide. Do not trust anyone. Turn off your Omni tool until you find somewhere safe, I will be sending someone to protect you shortly. Goddess be with you, Little Wing.

Liara was not too proud to hide the sob that bobbled up. Such relief, she wished that her mother was here with her now so that she could hug her tightly. Benezia may sometimes be cold, but she was her mother and right now Liara would give just about anything to find comfort in her arms.

“What is it? Is your mom ok?” John’s voice shook her out of her daze.

“I believe so,” Liara gave a small smile. “She was unable to speak with me, but she sent me some credits. There is enough here to buy us a room for the night at the least.”  

“That’s good….”John rubbed Jane’s sleeping head. “ Look I know that I said they may have attacked her but I need to find my wife, she needs to know what’s going on. You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to, I mean you already saved my life and Jane’s.”

She shook her head, “No, I will come with you. Whoever those people are they were trying to kill me as well, so I am just as involved as you are now.”

John slowly shifted Jane so that she was resting on the crate next to him. Jane must have tried herself out as she didn’t stir. He walked up to Liara and pulled her into a tight hug, she was surprised, and it took her a moment to respond.

He pulled back, and his eyes were a little watery. “My- My wife was going to meet us at the markets so I think we should start there ?”

Liara nodded, “Let’s head that way, we defiantly shouldn’t call a cab.”

 

* * *

 

Matriarch Benezia hadn’t always been a leader among the asari. During her maiden stage, she had been as wild as any other, had, in fact, led a small merc unit for over a century. She had driven her mother sick with worry and still even though her matron stage when she settled down to build up her follower base she had ceased trouble from the complete lack of bond mates, until the one she did have caused even more problems.

But for the past two hundred years, she had been acting as a leader to her people, trying to push them forward. She made deals on deals, talked to other leaders day after day. She had given up so much for her people and would give up even more, but there was one thing that she would never give.

Liara.

She had known that her daughter was going to be upset when her meeting went on too long but with the human’s being added to the mix there were so many things that needed to be worked out. Liara was only 82 there would be plenty of time to make it up to her. But then C-Sec had busted into her meeting and tried to tell her that her daughter had killed two people, one even being the officer that had decided to bring her in.  

She hadn’t believed them, they showed her the videos, and while even she had to agree that the asari in them did look like her daughter, Benezia knew her daughter. While she would be able to kill in self-defense, there was no way that she had murdered someone like the first video showed. Liara killing someone by putting them in stasis then shooting them in between the eyes? Something was wrong here.

It had been easy to have one of her follower's swap Omni tools with her. Benezia knew that her message would be only a small comfort but hoped it helped her Little Wing.

After the C-Sec finally left she stepped into her room, a small voice whispered that this could be career suicide but she steeled herself. Someone was trying to frame and kill her daughter, she couldn’t go out there on the streets without making it worse. It was a good thing she knew someone good at sneaking around.

“I need your help,” Benezia spoke quickly when the call connected. “Now.”

She rubbed her forehead, “Don’t be crass. It’s about Liara-”

The Matriarch sighed deeply, “No, I have not. I-” She could hear the shout even after she pulled the ominitool away. “ Would you listen! Liara is in danger, I -”

She had to pull the ominitool away again then, “I am not sure. C-Sec seems to think she killed two people and are on now on orders to shoot to kill. I know she did not kill anyone, someone must be trying to frame her. I need to you protect  her until I can make sure she’s safe.”

There was silence and then a small demand, one that she knew would be coming.

“Yes,” Benezia sighed and closed her eyes. “You may.”   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess whos coming????


End file.
